Like this bee on lavender bee balm, I am going to be busy.
I'm working out my packing list for two weeks away on what I intend to experience as a fiction-writing retreat: lots of solitary writing time daily, punctuated by tutorial and editorial sessions to discuss both general fiction craft and revisions to my novel, and by daily Mass and time in the Adoration chapel on the college campus where I'll be staying. I will also be meeting my family for Mass on Sundays.
I won't be so far away that I can't go home to retrieve things that I find I need, but I'd rather not expend the precious time that this residency affords me in going back and forth needlessly. To avoid that, I'm trying to think ahead here.
Priorities for this wardrobe capsule, in no particular order:
*being cool and comfortable in hot weather
*being warm in air conditioning
*being appropriately, if casually, dressed for a weekday Mass
*being appropriately, less casually dressed for a Sunday Mass
*being appropriately, ie casually-professionally dressed, for tutorials
*being comfortably dressed for talking walks
*being not self-conscious in what I'm wearing
*being able to put on clothes quickly & confidently without decision fatigue
*being able to put on an outfit and wear it all day/no need to change clothes for different endeavors
*being able to repeat outfit elements without getting bored
*being able to look good in anything I put on
I'm not quite sure why I couched all these priorities as "being" phrases, but on reflection, that seems important to me. Our bodies, and therefore, inescapably, the clothes in which we attire our bodies, are an integral part of our being. Thinking about how I want to be, on various levels, seems like a good key to decisions about how to dress.
It's going to be warm, so skirts/dresses and sandals will serve me well. I could probably go the entire two weeks in only skirts/dresses, and sandals, but feel I should probably at least throw in some pants options.
Here are some core outfit elements that I believe I'd like to include. As always, the predominating color is blue, though I've included one bone-white and one dark-pink/rose-brown item for variety.
From left:
*Thrifted Talbots navy ponte-knit fit-and-flare dress (with crop top for coverage)
*Old Navy rose-pink jumpsuit
*Very old Target cotton-sheeting bone-white drawstring cropped pants
*Thrifted blue swing t-shirt dress
*Thrifted patterned gauze maxi skirt
I've chosen all these items because they pack well, wear well without a lot of wrinkling (obvious exception: the cotton-sheeting pants, but I can steam them in the shower if I need to), and go with lots of things, including each other. For example, if I felt that the t-shirt dress was too short for Mass, I might pop the maxi skirt on over it and wear it as a top for an hour. I'd be curious to see if the fit-and-flare skirt would work that way; I suspect that the fabric is too thick, and the skirt too gathered, for it not to appear bulky, but it's an interesting thought, if nothing else. I could also belt the t-shirt dress over something else as a tunic.
I also plan to pack these navy knit paper-bag-waist pants (and the navy tee) shown in this picture:
So: two dresses, one skirt, two pairs of pants, one jumpsuit for novelty.
On second thought, let's add one more skirt:
In my wardrobe, where there's blue there's green. And this skirt is a complete workhorse. I can't imagine not wearing it for two weeks. I could tuck my t-shirt dress into this one, too.
Here's my packing list so far, then:
navy fit and flare dress
navy-ish t-shirt swing dress
rose-pink jumpsuit
navy paper-bag-waist trousers
bone-white cotton sheeting trousers
sage-green twill skirt
patterned gauze maxi skirt
This represents core items and bottoms. What to wear with?
Again, the navy tee in this photo is also proving itself to be a workhorse, even if it was a Walmart impulse buy.
I can wear it with the navy trousers for a jumpsuit effect. I can wear it knotted with the gauze maxi. I can tuck it into the sage-green skirt. I can knot it over the rose-pink jumpsuit (though I'd better not drink anything all day if I do that, or just pop it on as an extra layer for Mass). It goes with the bone-white trousers. It's not as cute as my scoop-neck embroidered tee, but that shirt has been worn so hard that it could stand a rest. A navy v-neck will serve me with great versatility and dress up or down as the moment demands.
Other tops to pack:
Left to right:
*Thrifted white gauze top, can be worn tucked in or loose, with virtually anything else. Looks great with bone-white pants. Looks good with paper-bag-waist pants. Haven't tried it with either skirt yet, but I don't see how it could go wrong. Cool and graceful and romantic.
*Thrifted Liz Claiborne navy patterned tank. Looks great with the sage-green skirt. Not as great as you might imagine with the navy pants, but I can live without putting those items together. Can't remember whether I've ever worn it with the bone-white pants. Could pop it under either the navy dress or the rose-brown jumpsuit.
*Pink Walmart tee, the exact counterpart to the navy tee. Good with the sage-green skirt, the navy pants, the bone-white pants. Could possibly knot over the rose-brown jumpsuit; never tried it, but the colors do theoretically work.
Everything doesn't exactly go with everything else here, but that's okay. Everything does go with more than one other thing, which is key.
Just for fun, let's work out how many different outfits we could possibly make using only these items so far. I'm not saying I'd wear every single one. I'd have to try them on to see how they actually looked. But theoretically, I could do . . .
1. navy dress by itself
2. navy dress with pink tee knotted over (so it functions as a skirt)
3. navy dress with navy patterned tank underneath instead of crop top
4. rose-brown jumpsuit by itself (belted or unbelted)
5. rose brown jumpsuit with pink tee under
6. rose-brown jumpsuit with pink tee knotted over
7. rose-brown jumpsuit with blue tee under
8. rose-brown jumpsuit with blue tee knotted over
9. rose-brown jumpsuit with navy patterned tank under
10. rose-brown jumpsuit with swing dress belted over as a tunic (dubious)
11. swing dress by itself
12. swing dress tucked into sage-green skirt
13. swing dress tucked into gauze maxi skirt
14. navy dress tucked into sage-green skirt
15. navy dress tucked into gauze maxi skirt
16. swing dress with pink tee knotted over
17. swing dress with navy tee knotted over
18. sage-green skirt with navy tee
19. sage-green skirt with pink tee
20. sage-green skirt with navy patterned tank
21. sage-green skirt with white gauze top tucked in
22. gauze skirt with navy tee, knotted
23. gauze skirt with white gauze top knotted
24. gauze skirt with white gauze top tucked in
25. white gauze top untucked with bone-white drawstring trousers
26. white gauze top, tucked in, with navy trousers
27. bone-white trousers with navy tee
29. bone-white trouserse with pink tee
30. bone-white trousers with navy patterned tank
I'm up to thirty possible outfits, and I'll only be gone fourteen days. I think I could probably not find myself reduced to wearing my swing dress as a tunic over the jumpsuit, but it's good to know that the possibility is there.
All this out of eleven basic pieces, and I haven't even gotten to button shirts and third layers.
Here I'm paring back my ideas. I just don't need that much. One versatile hard-wearing button shirt could serve me as either a blouse or a light jacket for everyday. My jean jacket would work for heavier coverage when needed.
Double denim might be a bit much, but of all my (small) collection of button shirts, this thrifted collarless denim shirt is the one I reach for most often. It's soft and relatively lightweight, so I could wear it as a blouse with either of the skirts and with the bone-white trousers (probably wouldn't wear it with the navy, though I could). I have liked it knotted over the jumpsuit. I can throw it on as a light jacket. It never seems to need ironing, which is a plus. The jean jacket, meanwhile, works with anything.
Those two items, plus two cardigans:
The colors aren't showing up well here, but the one on the left is a shiny, heavier shrug-type light-blue cardigan that reads as relatively dressy. I've had it since roughly 2005 and still reach for it all the time. The other is a grayer, greener, duck-egg blue, Loft label, thrifted several years ago. I like wearing it knotted, because otherwise it hits rather awkwardly right at my hips, but it is comfortable and well-made, and again, it goes with virtually everything else I'm bringing.
I could transform any of the outfits above with the addition of one of these top layers. And that's not even broaching the whole shoe subject, though in my case the question is always "which Birkenstock or Birkenstock-adjacent sandal will it be?"
So, fourteen days, fifteen clothing items, minus shoes, belts, and other accessories. I plan to bring several pairs of comfortable sandals, one pair of dressier sandals, and sneakers for walking (though I most often walk in sandals). I could make it fourteen items for fourteen days, but I'm not sure what I'd subtract. Possibly the navy pants, because I wear them less often than any of the other things, but then wearing them recently has reminded me that I do like them. They would be good for evening lounging-around, if nothing else – like a lighter pair of joggers that could also be called into daytime service if need be. Or maybe I could lose the pink tee. Or maybe it's fine to have more items than days, especially since more than half these items are things that can't be worn by themselves.
I said to myself that I wasn't going to be particularly minimalist in my packing. I'm driving, not flying, so I don't have to compress things too much. I'm not moving from place to place, having to pack and repack. I'm pretty satisfied that what I have here will serve my everyday needs, but also give me scope to dress up more if I go out to dinner or anything like that. I should be able to get dressed every day without a lot of angst and time-wasting, so that I can get on with things I really want and need to do.
ADDENDUM: I did throw in a few more items. Couldn't help myself. Another top, another cardigan. The prerogative of the driver with a big room all to herself at the end of her journey. I took one daypack-sized backpack and some hanging items, plus Aldi bags for shoes, toiletries, etc. Not the most efficient packing, but then I didn't need to be that efficient.
ADDENDUM: My Wool& dress arrived at the halfway mark and became my capsule wardrobe. I packed away a lot of what I'd brought with me to the residency and just wore the dress with a skirt, with tees and tanks knotted over, with the collarless denim shirt tossed over, and on its own.